Review: ‘Dark Droids’ #3 – Darth Vader Is Badass As The Droid Scourge Finally Makes Its Move
The Droid Scourge has never looked so deadly and terrifying as it does in Dark Droids #3. It’s looked plenty menacing and threatening when popping up in the Star Wars, Darth Vader, Doctor Aphra and Bounty Hunters series, but its creepiness and general threat level really hits home in Dark Droids, where we see events from its perspective and gain an insight into its mind.
It’s here that we can appreciate just how far its tendrils have spread through the galaxy as the scourge outlines its ambition to expand into organic minds and master the Force. Thankfully it’s still struggling on that front, but it’s not for a lack of trying — there’s a surprising amount of body horror in this issue, which is very apt with Halloween around the corner, which only adds to the layer of fear that the scourge is perpetuating.
The action finally ramps up in this issue after a surprisingly slow build up across the previous issues — you have to take a moment to remember it’s already attacked Vader in the latest Darth Vader issue and has already possessed the cyborg bounty hunter Valance in the Bounty Hunters series — writer Charles Soule does a great job keeping the tension raised as the Droid Scourge struggles to fight on multiple fronts simultaneously, despite its vast resources and processing power. That said, you get the sense it will take a coordinated effort across the galaxy to defeat this machine.
The scourge makes another play for Vader in this issue and I think it might be the most memorable imagery since this run of comics started in 2020, so congratulations to Luke Ross for creating some stunning and evocative artwork as Vader is a badass in a way we’ve never really seen before. This is the best issue of Dark Droids so far, and I won’t forget it in a hurry.
Spoilers ahead…
The issue took a long time to get to the action, but at least reading the Droid Scourge’s inner thoughts remain fascinating. We learn that he cannot figure out how to gain control of the Force and is genuinely at a loss. I am shocked that the scourge hasn’t figured out yet that droids cannot control the Force, considering how long it’s been around.
What it has learned however, is how to attach human body parts with cyber tattoos to droid bodies, creating a genuinely disturbed form of taxidermy that I was not prepared for, whether it’s human arms hanging out of astromech droid compartments, human legs attached to protocol droids or a skull stitched on top of a droid body. It’s all wonderfully horrific and creative.
The story really shifts up a gear when one of the Scourge’s mouse droids infiltrates Vader’s Castle on Mustafar while the dark lord is in a bacta tank recovering from their latest encounter. The Scourge corrupts the sentry droids who yank Vader out of his bath and drag his quadraplegic body across the floor.
It’s a remarkable image, as we’ve never seen Vader this vulnerable before but at the same time you can’t help but wonder what incredible display of power he has up his sleeve to get out of this one. Predictably, he levitates his lightsaber and pulls it straight into the back of one of the droids, slowing the group down. Charles Soule is great at finding new ways for Vader to be a badass, taking down the dark droids without being able to move his limbs.
While this is happening, Ajax Sigma leads his droids from the Visioned of the Second Revelation in an attack on the Droid Scourge’s repurposed Star Destroyer, now named The Scourge 01. We see that the ship has been completely redecorated, painted all black now with huge black spikes shooting out of every surface.
This design motif is replicated in the scourge’s new droid body, evoking some sort of cyberpunk Sauron with loose wires trailing behind like a ragged cape. It’s a striking design and I love it.
While the scourge struggles to process fighting Ajax Sigma and Darth Vader along with its uninterrupted attempts to successfully bond with flesh, numbers are on its side and while Vader just manages to free himself by destroying his droid captors, it manages to overwhelm Ajax Sigma and its followers. It destroys all but one of the Visioned of the Second Revelation, as Sigma is forced to flee into the black void of space.
This might be how it figures out its next move when it comes to possessing organics, as the scourge seems to have a light bulb moment shortly after this though it isn’t clear what triggered it. He realizes that hybroids are the key to achieving its goals, and we see images of Magna Tolvan, Lobot and Valance all possessed by the Droid Scourge. Valance has already been taken, but as far as I can tell the other two are spoilers for future issues of the Star Wars and Doctor Aphra comic series.
I always suspected Lobot would hold the key to defeating the Droid Scourge at the beginning of this series, but I didn’t see the scourge’s interest in him coming by a mile off. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next issues of those respective series, particularly with Tolvan about to encounter the scourge for the first time in the next issue of Doctor Aphra.
The third issue of Dark Droids started off as a fascinating slow build that exploded into riveting action set pieces with another memorable encounter for Darth Vader. I thoroughly enjoyed this installment and can’t wait to read more.
Rating: 9/10
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
